Showing 312 results

Helen Caroline Abell (1917-2005) was one of Canada’s first rural sociologists. Although she was born in Medicine Hat, Alberta, Dr. Abell was mostly raised in Toronto, Ontario. She attended the Macdonald Institute in Guelph, graduating in 1938, and went on to study home economics at the University of Toronto. During the Second World War, Dr. Abell served with the Canadian Women's Army Corp (1942-1945). After the war she studied at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, receiving a Ph.D. in Rural Sociology in 1951.

Upon graduation, Dr. Abell moved back to Canada to head the Rural Sociology Research Unit for the Economic Division of Canada’s Department of Agriculture. She held this position from 1952 to 1962. She moved on from there to teaching positions at the Ontario Agricultural College (1962-1967), the University of Waterloo (1967-1972), and the University of Saskatchewan (1973-1974). During her working and academic career, Dr. Abell became highly involved with international studies in the field of rural sociology. She completed projects for the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and the Good and Agriculture Organization (FAO), taking her to rural parts of Jamaica, Nigeria, Columbia, Transkei (South Africa), Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Ghana, and Pakistan. For a time, she also worked for the United Nations as a Social Affairs Officer in their Community Development Group.

Dr. Abell published numerous studies and articles and became a renowned speaker and consultant in rural life, agriculture, and nutrition. In 1997, Dr. Abell was conferred an honourary doctor of laws degree from the University of Guelph. She died in 2005.

Una Stella (née Golding) Abrahamson (1922-1999) was born in London, England. After marrying Roy Abrahamson, they came to Canada in 1946. Having studied art in England, Abrahamson apprenticed under the Ottawa painter Henri Masson (1907-1996) for a short time before becoming a noted home economist and domestic historian for Chatelaine magazine in the 1960s. Una also worked as a publicist for General Foods Kitchens and, in the 1970s, became the Director of Consumer Affairs for Dominion Stores.

Abrahamson was an active cookbook collector, her private collection becoming one of the finest in North America. The collection offers special insights into the development of culinary arts and the social history of cookery. Abrahamson also wrote three important books: God Bless Our Home: Domestic Life in Nineteenth Century Canada (1966), Crafts Canada: The Useful Arts (1974), and The Canadian Guide to Home Entertaining (1975). She served as chair of the Ontario Council of Health's Task Force on Nutrition and Dietetic Services in 1975. During this period, she also contributed many articles to Canadian magazines while lecturing at many conferences and meetings.

Bill Acres accompanied Ted Johns to Old Fort Bay on the North Shore of the St. Lawrence in January 1974 to absorb the culture and landscape for his design of the sets for Johns' play Naked on the North Shore (Theatre Passe Muraille, 1977, directed by Paul Thompson). The play is based on Johns' own experiences as a teacher in a remote fishing village.

George Matthew Adams was born August 23, 1878 in Saline, Michigan. Adams was an American newspaper columnist and the founder of the George Matthew Adams Newspaper Service, which for five decades syndicated comic strips and columns to newspapers. Adams was best known for his daily essays titled: “Today’s Talk”. He passed away on October 29, 1962.

Hrant Alaniak was both in Khartoum, Sudan on September 15, 1950 to Armenian parents. He moved to Montreal at age 17, studied business administration, and started to write plays around the age of 22. His debut as a writer came in 1972 with the Theatre Passe Muraille production of his play Tantrums. His plays have received rave reviews from the US, Canada, the UK, and Israel. Among his most popular works are Lucky Strike (

David Allan Sr. (1808-1895) was a miller, distiller, architect, engineer, and town councillor in Guelph, Ontario. Born in Edinburgh, Scotland on January 11, 1808, David Allan was associated for a time with the eminent architect of Edinburgh, David Bryce (1803-1876), before coming to Canada in 1831. In 1832, David and his father, William Allan (d. 1859), purchased a mill, which they later called Allan's Mill, on the Speed River in Guelph. The mill had been built in 1830 by Horace Perry for the Canada Company. For the next four decades, the Allan family expanded and developed the mill into a thriving industrial complex, which included the grist and flour mill as well as a distillery, a blacksmith and cooper shop, and a stone quarry and lime kiln.

During this period, Allan and his family also built dams for the Canada Company throughout southwestern Ontario, including in Stratford and Goderich. In 1857-1858, he assisted William Hay in the construction of St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church on Norfolk Street, Guelph.

After suffering a stroke in 1877, David withdrew from the milling business. He died in Guelph on December 18, 1895. David’s daughter, Margaret Allan, married Guelph pharmacist, politician, and militiaman Nathaniel Higinbotham (1830-1911) in 1862.

Linda Ambrose is a professor at Laurentian University, teaching Canadian history in the History department since 1994. Her areas of study include women’s history, gender history, and family history. She is an active researcher, publishing on rural women’s organisations and Canadian Pentecostalism. Ambrose belongs to the Canadian Historical Association (CHA), the Ontario Women’s History Network (OWHN), the Canadian Committee on Women’s History (CCWH), the Rural Women’s Studies Association (RWSA), the Agricultural History Society (AHS), the Society for Pentecostal Studies (SPS), and the European Research Network on Global Pentecostalism (GloPent). Ambrose has a BA Hons, MA, and PhD from the University of Waterloo.

Allan Anderson, a CBC Radio broadcaster, was born in Calgary, raised in the West, and educated in Quebec. He and his wife Betty Tomlinson Anderson (1923-2016), also a CBC radio broadcaster and producer, moved to a farm near Tottenham, Ontario in 1975, where they lived for the remainder of their lives.

Anderson published his first oral history collection, "Remembering the Farm", in 1977. Two other oral histories followed: "Salt Water, Fresh Water" in 1979 and “Roughnecks and Wildcatters" in 1981.

Allan and Betty wrote two books together, “Greetings from Canada: An Album of Unique Canadian Postcards from the Edwardian Era, 1900-1916” in 1978 and “Tecumseth Township: The Unforgettable Past” in 1984. Allan also wrote "Remembering Leacock" in 1983.

Margaret Anderson (Margaret Kidd), met her husband Thomas Anderson (1772-1869) in the town of Fifeshire, Scotland. In 1832 Thomas and Margaret immigrated to Canada with their 9 children, settling on 100 acres of land near Guelph, Ontario.The Anderson family became respected members of the community, clearing two farms, raising their family, and living in the Guelph Township until they passed away in 1869.